Razer Blade Pro (2012) review

3DMark 06: 14,422
Cinebench 10: 20,026
Battery Eater '05: 82 minutes

Given the internal specifications above, we were excited to get the Razer Blade Pro out on the open road to see what it could do. The answer, it turns out, is a whole lot.

A week ago, we reviewed Toshiba's 3D Qosmio X870, which we found to be an astoundingly powerful gaming machine for the remarkable price of $1,900.

We're not surprised that the Razer Blade Pro holds its own in head-to-head benchmarking comparisons. In our 3DMark test, which inflicts DX9 pain and suffering on the graphics processor, we were quite pleased with the results.

The same goes for our Cinebench 10 test, which soaks all four CPU scores. The Qosmio's 100MHz advantage gives it a slight 4 percent performance advantage there. Both systems' performances, it must be said, are top notch.

So, what does this mean in terms of real-world performance? We stretched the Blade out in our current obsession, Borderlands 2, and at 1920 x 1080 with no antistrophic filtering on, saw decent frame rates in the high 20s and occasionally low 30s. At lower resolutions such as 1280 x 1024, the frame rates improved considerably.

We saw similar results with other DX11 games. Bottom line: You're not going to get 60 frames per second with current-gen PC titles at 1080 resolution, but you'll be pleased with the results.

The upside of the new Intel CPU, which boasts some new power efficiencies, is that it results in surprisingly solid battery life. In our Battery Eater test, which continuously hammers away at the hard drive, graphics processor, and CPU until the battery completely discharges, we saw an eye-opening result of 82 minutes.

It's worth noting that, in normal use, the Razer Blade Pro's battery performance is commendable. We were able to go almost 6 hours while typing and browsing away. That's impressive.